From the Archives of The Stamford Advocate
The Week of Dec. 6

Published
9:43 pm EST, Sunday, December 6, 2009

25 years ago

Dec. 12, 1984: What started as a joke evolved into a somewhat bizarre Christmas season promotion. For the first time, rather than have Santa Claus arrive by conventional methods, the Stamford Downtown council arranged for him to rappel down the side of the 22-story Landmark Square tower and drop into the mezzanine.

"We were just looking for a holiday event, not something outrageous or unusual," said Ellen Butler, promotion and public relations coordinator for the Stamford Downtown Council.

The first rappelling Santa was Steve Schless of Stamford, who had been rock climbing for eight years. He said the feat would be easier than rock climbing because "you don't have to worry about rocks coming down on top of you."

50 years ago

Dec. 8, 1959: In a "bipartisan experiment," four Democrats and a Republican teamed up to elect a Republican as school board president despite his own party's opposition.

The new Republican president, L. Reed Clark, called his election "statesmanship." Disgruntled members of his own party called it "the accomplishment of personal ambition to be president of the board -- come hell or high water."

Mrs. Margaret Hume, the only other Republican elected during the school board's organizational meeting, refused to serve under the presidency of Mr. Clark, who ruled her resignation out of order.

Dec. 11, 1959: An unusual means of presenting evidence -- secretly filmed motion pictures -- had been employed for the first time at Superior Court here.

The movie, which captured a Stamford housewife as she conducted household tasks, was taken from a neighbor's yard on behalf of four defendants in a lawsuit the woman filed following an automobile accident. She had been seeking $50,000 in damages, but was awarded only $1,100 when the defendants' attorneys successfully argued that her injuries were not as serious as claimed, as proven by her movement in the movies.

100 years ago

Dec. 6, 1909: A public meeting of the History Club of the High School was held in the auditorium and was well attended by members, parents and guests. A feature of the meeting was a demonstration of the reflectoscope. Mr. Ware spoke briefly about the apparatus and its development from the magic lantern, then he used it to illustrate his talk. The reflectoscope placed on the screen, in a magnified form, not only photographs and printed pictures but all sorts of objects. Presenting a speech that afternoon was Miss Averill, head of the history department, who spoke on the topic of Greek architecture, although the reflectoscope showed some photos of pyramids, the Sphinx and other artifacts in Egypt.

Dec. 9, 1909: An important step towards forming an Associated Charities' Society in Stamford was taken when a meeting of those interested in the movement was held in the office of Judge F.C. Taylor. It was decided to hold an open meeting in January, when all those who were influential in charity work would be asked to attend. The mission of the society was summarized in the beginning of a constitution that was approved at the meeting: "To encourage and promote such cooperation as will result in harmonious and more effective action in the work of the poor relief among the religious and charitable organizations, the public officials, and individuals of the town of Stamford."